Nigeria’s president, Bola Tinubu, has signed a law extending the capital component of the 2025 federal budget to December 31, 2026, the fourth delay of a spending plan originally due to close last year.
According to a statement from Bayo Onanuga, special adviser to the president on information and strategy, both chambers of the house of assembly passed the Appropriation (Amendment) (No. 4) Bill earlier this week.
The change covers capital works, not day-to-day government running costs. Ministries get three more months to finish projects already funded and to spend money already released.
The 2025 budget was due to expire on December 31, 2025. Lawmakers later moved the capital deadline to March 31, June 30 and September 30, 2026, before this latest extension to year-end.
Signed in February 2025, the original plan totaled 54.99 trillion naira, about $41 billion at the official rate near 1,330 naira to the dollar. A later rewrite cut it to about 48.32 trillion naira, including roughly 16.8 trillion naira for capital projects.
The extension overlaps the 2026 budget, Africa’s largest national spending plan at 68.32 trillion naira, or about $51 billion, in force since April. That law sets aside about 32.2 trillion naira for capital works.
The move breaks a pledge Tinubu made on December 19, 2025. He told lawmakers prior capital liabilities would be closed by March 31, 2026, and that Nigeria would then run one budget, with no rollovers.
Senate leader Opeyemi Bamidele cited slow procurement, contractor mobilisation and payment certification. Colleagues also blamed delays in the centralized payment system run by the accountant-general.
For investors, the pattern blurs which year’s projects are being paid and weakens fiscal reporting. Nigeria is carrying two capital budgets into the final quarter of 2026, despite a promise to end the practice.
